Maximalist British South America?

Guys,

The idea is inspired by:

http://shootingparrots.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Punch_Rhodes_Colossus.png

but applied to British South America ( BSA )

PoD: the Napoleonic wars and the British invasion in the La Plata region. ( as usual in these hundreds of BSA timelines ). Brits take and hold the estuary region and naturally do demographic replacement via sourcing immigrants, and the spanish-speaking population component pretty quickly fells into tiny minority. As during the liberation wars, the ( this time British ) Argentinians go to liberate / annex Chile ( in 1820es ). Thus the whole Southern Cone fells into Brit hands. The name ARGENTINA for this entity in its totality is most natural because it has such posh latin imperial origin.

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What follows then?

Southern direction: not the Russians in 1820es but the TTL Argentinians / Brits discover and CLAIM Antarctica. London lets them to incorporate all the territories from 60 degress south into the Dominion of Argentina under the "trademark / brand" FRIGIA. ( From frost / winter / snow in latin ).

Northern Direction:

hmmm, see the present population density map of S.America:

633843popmapr.JPG


From Terra del Fuego to Guyana in a strip wide thousands of miles, even nowadays lives de facto nobody.

OTL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Guyana#Transition_to_British_rule

So TTL Brit control over the two continental ends by the meridian ( the Southern Cone and Guyana ) are OTL approx. contemporary.

So the trick would be the British Empire and British Argentina to get involved in the revolutionary wars of the 1820es and the later 1800es civil wars in order to take control over the WHOLE of the drainage basins of Amazon, Plate and Orinocco rivers.

The Portugese speaking S.American region would be trimmed down to a narrow strip along the Atlantic, the Spanish speaking region to a narrow strip along Pacific and Carribean from Atakama north to Guyana.

Thus British S. America ( OTL Argentina ) would become the biggest country by territory in the world, consisting of a strip of land between Montevideo ( OTL Urugway ) to Santiago ( OTL Chile ) where the Dominion full-fledged member-states / provinces would be - sandwitched between two enormous "federal territories"
- 15 000 000 sq.km of FLUVIA + 15 000 000 sq.km of FRIGIA

I could make a map and post it here...
 
Had a go at this on the worlda basemap, though I can't help but feel that the federal territories would need to be broken up. Similarly a lot of the Argentinean/Chilean province borders would presumably be butterflied with an 1820 POD - made a half-assed attempt at this for the Hispanophone and Lusophone nations.

British South America Map.png
 
Would this mean no British abolition of slavery?

Also why would they want the entire Amazon etc.?
 
Zuvarq,

No population - no slavery.

Not only Amazon but Orinoco too. They'd want them because these lands are full of resources, uncontrolled really by anyone and because like the Durban-Cairo line - to link up their territories in S.America. The river system also gives splendid inland waterway network + ready interface with the ocean -- seagoing vessels could enter and exert force thousands of miles away from the sea.
 
Had a go at this on the worlda basemap, though I can't help but feel that the federal territories would need to be broken up. Similarly a lot of the Argentinean/Chilean province borders would presumably be butterflied with an 1820 POD - made a half-assed attempt at this for the Hispanophone and Lusophone nations.

Thanx, SRegan, quite exact pic to what I imagined. I'll find appropriate base map of S.America to work on. The overall picture is correct: Northern Territories and Southern Territories ( Patagonia + Antarctica ) & the 10-15 Confederated states / provinces / - members of the Confederation of Argentina sandwiched between. The OTL Brazilian Curitiba would be a state. As well as Paraguayan Asencion. The capital of the union - the Union District would be positioned on some of the La Plata river tributaries as west as possible, somewhere in the middle between Santiago and Buenos Aires.
 
Zuvarq,

No population - no slavery.

Not only Amazon but Orinoco too. They'd want them because these lands are full of resources, uncontrolled really by anyone and because like the Durban-Cairo line - to link up their territories in S.America. The river system also gives splendid inland waterway network + ready interface with the ocean -- seagoing vessels could enter and exert force thousands of miles away from the sea.
Well there was quite a bit of settlement and thus slavery in the far eastern and western coastal parts of 'Fluvia'.

And I doubt the scenario is likely (Amazon may be navigable, but tropical disease and heat are still problems as are the voyages between river systems) but it's still pretty cool anyway.

Thanx, SRegan, quite exact pic to what I imagined. I'll find appropriate base map of S.America to work on. The overall picture is correct: Northern Territories and Southern Territories ( Patagonia + Antarctica ) & the 10-15 Confederated states / provinces / - members of the Confederation of Argentina sandwiched between. The OTL Brazilian Curitiba would be a state. As well as Paraguayan Asencion. The capital of the union - the Union District would be positioned on some of the La Plata river tributaries as west as possible, somewhere in the middle between Santiago and Buenos Aires.
The British would probably prefer sailing around Patagonia than crossing the Andes. Buenos Aires, Rosario, or maybe Resistencia would be good capitals.
 
Slavery -- it will follow its fate as everywhere else in the British Empire. The Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries north-east and west of Fluvia Territory would be a source of steady influx of escaped slaves.

Waterways -- see: http://www.userway.com/Usa/Waterways/oriampla.htm

Capital of the British South America ( TTL Argentina ): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Córdoba,_Argentina#Climate

Crossing the Andes to link by land ex-Chile with ex-La Plata would be a priority and matter of "national" pride in mid-1800es when the Railway Era is in its height.
 
The British would probably prefer sailing around Patagonia than crossing the Andes. Buenos Aires, Rosario, or maybe Resistencia would be good capitals.

Sailing around the Cape was a horrible journey - possibly the most dangerous in the world and certainly among the ones sailors least wanted to do. It's not a great route to try to turn into a major shipping route. It would probably accelerate interest in a Central American canal.

Plus, if they can lay a rail line across the Andes at a point where they aren't so high or thick then that would likely negate any speed boosts and be easily the preferable system for trade south of Brazil, if not including Brazil too...
 
I for one believe that Britain will not be able to hold its new territory when the liberal revolutions arrive in South America
 
I for one believe that Britain will not be able to hold its new territory when the liberal revolutions arrive in South America

British S.America shall use NAMELY the liberation and post-liberation wars in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in order to carve the resulting new Iberic-speaking nations down to these much smaller territories. The territorial evolution of TTL British Uber-Argentina would follow the patterns of the territorial expansion of OTL USA between the Napoleonic Wars and WWI.
 
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